


thriving on chaos

by powelli



Category: The Creatures | Cow Chop RPF
Genre: Jurassic Park AU, Lots of Research, M/M, lots of dinosaurs, yes. back atcha again with MORE obscure AUs!!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-09-30 05:38:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17218040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/powelli/pseuds/powelli
Summary: James grew up digging up old bones, just as Aleks grew up reciting old equations.Fate brings them together on the same day, on the same tour, on the same island. Unfortunately.





	1. coram tempestate tranquillitas

A toothbrush, malformed with age and caked with several layers of caked dust, scratches at the mandible of the largest velociraptor fossil James has ever had the fortune of seeing in his career. He’d been lying in the same position, on his stomach, hat strategically balanced on the back of his neck, scuffing away at the curve of the bone for around seven hours. Even when his colleagues, a handful of less-than-eager volunteers and a very bored school trip stopped under the shade for a lunch of stale cheese sandwiches and lukewarm Capri-     Suns, he lay there, baking in the sun as dirt caked his beard and covered his skin in a thin layer of concentrated powder. He was nearly done.

He looked forward to actually extracting it from the ground. Of course, it was risky business, but on the majority of occasions that they had managed to transfer the bones from the site to who had become known as ‘the analysis guys’, it had always been a huge triumph. And that was even for small stuff – claws, and the like. This was a _big-ass mandible_ , as he had so eloquently put in his email to his supervisors asking for more time on the site he was supposed to leave in three days. He couldn’t leave _now_ , Jesus – not only would he lose sleep at night thinking about the velociraptor – which the school trip had been allowed to name Alice, but he knew his mom, ten years retired, would fly in immediately to take his place. She wouldn’t miss this chance, so he wouldn’t either.

James raised his head to frown at his surroundings. Anna was opposite him, lying on her stomach in a tank top and a baseball cap. He felt like telling her to put some more sunscreen on, but she looked pretty focused on hollowing out the dirt caking the orbit in Alice’s skull, so he left it. The sun was still high in the sky even though it was perhaps four or five by now, and he could feel it soaking through his clothes.

He shifted for the first time in hours – his ribs and back cracked simultaneously, loud enough that Anna looked up, startled.

“I know,” James mumbled as he heaved himself up. The toothbrush was gently placed beside him as he stood, every joint seemingly clicking back into place at once. He stretched and, absent-mindedly, craned his neck to peer over the mandible from an above view. It looked good. Not quite done, obviously, but good. Satisfied, James stepped back and spun on his heel, ever-so-careful not to kick any dust onto the fossil before he makes his way to the break room.

The break room, in actual fact, was a pitched tent. Nothing more, nothing less. Inside was a cooler and a stack of boxes – they got deliveries bi-weekly – which were fully empty aside from a few scrunched up plastic bags at the bottom of each one. James instead moved to open the cooler, gently nudging away a enclosed vial of – he didn’t even know, but it looked like bone marrow or something – to grab a can of some off-brand carbonated soda. He opened it as he pushed the flap to the tent and stepped outside into the sun again, squinting against the sun. God, it was so bright. He scanned the horizon, flat aside from the impression of mountains, blue with distance, until his eyes landed on Anna again. She was sat up, hands on her waist, frowning. Asher was standing beside her, expression very much the same but rapidly saying something. James felt a twist in his stomach. Something was wrong.

He found himself moving across the site before he even computed taking his first step. Eventually, he was jogging, soda spilling out onto his hand and forming little bubbles that trickled down in random directions across the back of his hand. He slowed down within a few feet of the fossil, beginning to take careful steps around it before he was also at Anna’s side.

“-can’t have been ‘Teeth, I mean-“ Asher was saying. James craned his head to peer at what they were so focused on.

“What’s going on?” He demanded, crouching down beside her, one hand braced on the ground.

“The raptor,” Anna began unsurely, using her fingertips to daintily dust at the clearly empty space in front of her. “It’s missing it’s left quadrate.”

James frowned. Blinked once, and scanned the skull again. She was right.

“I mean. It’s not _unheard_ of for animals to, uh, be born without them,” James reasoned, stopped from going further by Anna shaking her head firmly.

“No, no. Look,” he did, tracing the movement of her pointing with his eyes. “It’s been removed – there’s a clear gap where it was.”

Right again.

James straightened back up. “Shit, dude,” he said, arms moving to cross over his chest. “Uh, okay. I’ll call Adam in the morning, I guess. Not much else we can do before then.”

He didn’t have to admit that he was fucking enraged by this. They had worked for weeks looking for fossils, and they finally find one. A huge one, too. _Alice_. And she’s had her fucking quadrate stolen – is that a joke? He stared down at his boots for a second, trying to regain a calm, steady breathing pace. Like he wasn’t going to burst into tears.

“James,” Asher said, and he looked up. Asher was pointing ahead of them, and he followed the gesture to glimpse Trevor, one of the volunteers, jogging across the site, one hand holding a phone – beige, with a little antennae and everything. He was yelling something, but it was unheard.

“What?” He called. There was a wind picking up, whipping the stray hairs from James’ bun into the side of his face. He didn’t have to say anything before Anna was jumping to her feet and sprinting away to grab the cover, joined closely by Asher. They returned before Trevor got to them, and James helped them sling the blue parka blanket over the fossil, hooking it into the posts surrounding the skeleton. At least it was protected for the most part, but James felt a swell of anxiety as the wind picked up, so fast that it was shaking the tent.

He held onto his hat atop his head as Trevor reached him, dry heaving as he nudged the phone into his hand. James covered the speaker as he hissed at the volunteer, “Who is this?”

Trevor coughed. “Uh, Burnie Burns, I think. Wants you.”

“The - the millionaire?” He clarifies, and Trevor responds with a shrug.

James fixes him with a glare before holding up the phone to his ear and speaking as clearly as he could manage given the wind flinging specks of dust into his eyes.

“Yeah, hi. This is James,” he introduced himself, and listened to the response intently. “-A what?”

-

A month later, he is sitting in a very nice helicopter and flying over Managua, head tilted back and half-asleep, even as his seatbelt continues to dig into his chest. The pilot had informed him: ‘ninety minutes’, so he took his word for it, and elected to catch a nap before they landed in Costa Rica – or as Burns had put it, a little island off the shore of Costa Rica. He hardly noticed as the helicopter began to descend, only jolting up when they made contact with the roof of a tall apartment block and the entire aircraft seemed to shudder violently.

He blinked sleepily. “What’s goin’ on?”

The pilot turned in his seat, headset still firmly in place. “Picking up some other visitors – I assumed Mr. Burns let you know there’d be company.”

“Uh, no,” James managed, sitting back again. “He didn’t.”

They sat there in silence for perhaps five minutes before the door to the rooftop slammed open with a blur of a kick from the inside.

Storming out first was a man James could only perceive as the most stereotypical frat boy he had ever had the misfortune of witnessing – he was an artificial blonde, somewhat scruffy, definitely hungover, and dressed in a plain black sweater and jeans – along with a pair of sneakers that were near enough fallen apart. He laughed at something before beginning to stalk over to the helicopter, throwing up a hand in a lazy wave to the pilot who got out to greet him. James didn’t want to imagine how warm he would be on the island in that attire.

Closely following the frat boy was a shorter woman, with waving brown hair and soft eyes. She held a coy smile on her face seemingly constantly, but there was a level of sternness about her features. She, perhaps much more sensibly, was dressed far more similarly to James – in a shirt and shorts, with boots and a sunhat on. She approached the helicopter closely behind the frat boy, speaking to the pilot as he took her backpack.

The door was flung open.

“Hey, man,” said the frat boy, and James jumped only a little as he fell down beside him and threw out a hand for a handshake.

“Hi,” he said stiffly, taking the hand and shaking it. He had sweaty palms. Gross.

“Aleks,” he said, as a way of introduction, and James nodded.

“James,” he responded.

“Yeah, yeah, heard you’d be joining us man. I’m a big fan of your work – read about that, ah, what was it? That fuckin’ big dinosaur you found in Arizona.”

James frowned. “Uh, yeah, it was a dilophosaurus.”

Aleks grinned. “Cool shit, man.”

The door opened again, and the woman entered, stepping up and sitting opposite James. She smiled, large sunglasses partially obscuring her face as she spoke.

“Hey, I’m Lindsey,” she introduced herself with a gesture of her hand.

He shook it. “James,”

“Yeah, the palaeontologist. I’ll tell you, your work last year on that raptor fossil – of the baby – really helped my team treat one of them. You’ve been briefed about the park, yes?”

“Uh, sure, yeah. It’s a kind of petting zoo? – what did you treat, again?”

Lindsey burst into laughter.

James bristled. “What?”

“Don’t-“ Lindsey was saying, waving a hand. “What did you think they hired you for?”

James frowned. Suddenly he wasn’t so sure.

Lindsey smiled knowingly. “Don’t worry about it. You’ll see.”

“I’ll - okay, sure.”

The frat boy next to her shrugged. “Hey man, I know just as much as you."

The laughter eventually died, and Lindsey, still chuckling, gestured to Aleks. “You’ve met Aleksandr? He’s uh, acting as my sort of lawyer today. Meaning that he’s such a freak that I know he’ll be able to pick up on anything slightly off about the entire park.”

“Hey,” Aleks murmured in weak protest.

James nodded like he understood. He didn’t. “And what do you do again?”

“Oh. Uh. I dabble in math, and stuff.” Aleks replied quietly, now hidden behind his sunglasses and leaning back against the seat, seemingly disgruntled by the loud chopping of the helicopter blades as they began to ascend. He let James stare at him for a second before continuing, “Just kidding, I-“

“Aleks has a PhD in mathematics. Graduated when he was sixteen – he’s just too much of an asshole to say it straight,” Lindsey explained. “He’s, uh, something of a prodigy. But he is _still_ a fucking idiot,”

“Fuck you, Lindsey,”

She laughed, and Aleks soon succumbed to a quiet chuckle, which died out as quickly as it began. James began to feel twinges of imposter syndrome.

“So, anyway,” Lindsey began, clicking her seatbelt together even though the helicopter was already on its way. “You excited for the park?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess. Never been this far south, so – you said you worked there?”

She nodded. “Sure did. I was, ah, head veterinarian for a year and a half, give or take. Quit because of an incident.”

“An incident?” James clarified, raising his eyebrows. “This place isn’t dangerous, right?”

Lindsey regarded him with a new air of seriousness. “I hope not.”

Aleks snored next to him.

-

The helicopter lands an hour later on Isla Nublar – which indeed was an island just off the coast of Costa Rica. James’ first impression of it comes in the form of a double-take – he’s halfway through asking Lindsey about her advice on taking care of a dog with possible diabetes when Aleks makes a breathy noise from beside him. He turns and glimpses out of the window before fixing Aleks with a wry smile. Then he seems to realise, and looks again.

Isla Nublar is one of those rare places that seems to just look untouched – the helicopter approaches a lush green landscape first, full of mountains just coated in forestry, thick and rich with not so much of an indication of human life. The sky is blue, still – it’s around two, and the sun illuminates the landscape in a way that’s almost blinding.

“Oh,” Lindsey breathes. “I forgot…”

She didn’t finish the sentence, but she didn’t need to. They stare out the window from that point to until they land – which happens to be on a helipad just a little past the mountains. From the helipad is a long dark road, running through a clearing and past a tall perimeter fence. James regards this with a frown.

“Kind of overkill, ain’t it?” He asks, directed to the employee who had helped him out.

The man shrugged. “Just in case.”

Lindsey was out shortly after him, followed closely by Aleks, who scrunched his nose up at the view. She was by James’ side in a second, hands on her hips and hair suddenly pulled up in a bun – he didn’t blame her. The island was hot, stiflingly so, and he felt a sheen of sweat building on his forehead. She made a humming noise.

“Not quite the petting zoo look you expected, huh?” She asked, and James shrugged in return. She was right.

He opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a hand on his shoulder. He turned, and came face-to-face with a burly man, with a thick beard and long-ish hair concealed by a red baseball cap. He was wearing a dark green polo and white pants – no logo in sight, though.

“Hey, Mr. Wilson,” he said, and his voice was surprisingly high. “I’m Brett, I’m the head palaeobotanist at the park. I’m, uh, sorry that we couldn’t get any other staff member to show you around – most of our employees haven’t even be flown in yet, and those that have been are constantly working or on break. We have a lot of animals and not very many employees – I’m sure you understand.”

“Yeah, sure.” James nodded, looking a ways past him towards the jeep. It was red and grey, with a logo on each door. He didn’t get a chance to look closer, though, because then the door was being opened and his bag gently placed inside.

Brett had moved on. “Hi, Lindsey.”

“Hey, Brett. How’s the park been?” She asked, half-preoccupied with swatting away a fly.

“Uh, good, yeah. Not quite the same without you, right?” That made them both crack a smile. James and Aleks looked between them like accusatory children. “How’s the arm?”

“You know. Still healing.”

“Hm. Not surprised,” he said, but it wasn’t unkind in the slightest.

She beamed up at him, and there was another moment of content before Aleks spoke.

“You two know each other, then?” He deadpanned, and James couldn’t tell if he was joking – his face was perfectly neutral as Brett regarded him with a dry smile.

“Yes,” he said, slowly, like he was speaking to a child. “You’re Aleksandr. The… uh, the math prodigy, or whatever. Yeah. Saw you in the news a few months ago.”

Brett tended to speak like he was having a one-sided conversation, James realised.

“That’s me, man.” Aleks nodded at him, but made no move to shake his hand. It occurred to James that Aleks was sort of weird. “Representing, uh, Lindsey’s fears and doubts. I guess.”

“Right,” Brett drawled. “Well, we’re running late, so we should-“ He gestured loosely to the cars before moving to trudge over to them, followed closely by the group. He got in the driver’s seat, Lindsey in the passenger. That left James and Aleks in the backseat, much to their mutual dismay. But the seats were cushioned so Aleks was pretty much half-asleep as soon as his back hit the seat, James noticed.

“Christ, man. How hungover are you?” he asked, and Aleks groaned in some kind of response.

“I’m really sorry Burnie can’t join us today – he’s in New York on emergency business,” Brett offered, slamming the door behind him.

“Oh,” Lindsey mused, glancing into the backseat and making eye contact with James. “Charming.”

They approached the perimeter – it was more tall and menacing up close, especially when they slowed to a stop at the gate. A guard acknowledged them with a tight smile before pulling a lever and entering a passcode. The gates bleated electronically before opening both sets and allowing them access to the park. They drove through a tropical, and, James supposed, natural landscape for a while.

Once, they drove past a large building – sand-coloured and looming, standing opposite a picturesque pond, complete with lily-pads and the trickling sound of running water. James squinted up at the building. It was large and dome-like, the entrance preceded by a set of stairs. Here, they stopped, and were asked to get out of the cars and transfer to new ones – seemingly identical. They got in the Jeep in the same seating order, but not before James could get a good look at their surroundings.

“Visitor Center?” He read from above the door, and Lindsey hummed.

“Yeah,” and when he turned to her, “You know… it’s like the main hub. Uh, control room, dining hall, that stuff. I’m pretty sure we’re eating there later,” she looked to Brett for clarification here.

He nodded. “Yeah. Pretty sure that’s at six – my schedules in my bag, I’ll get that for you later.”

The car began to move, but Brett wasn’t touching any of the controls – instead, he was speaking quietly to Lindsey. He watched as the car moved with little error of bumpiness; odd, given the terrain. Then he noticed the tracks ahead – the entire vehicle moved on tracks. A look behind him, to the other car full of guards, indicated the same conclusion. That was undeniably odd – even for safaris. But James simply shrugged and simply watched as they drove past, following the rail path.

“Hey, Brett,” Aleks was saying, and Brett grunted in response. “Is the _entire_ park controlled by rail?”

“Uh, yeah. I guess – aside from some maintenance paths around the path, of course. The rails are just much more convenient for tours.” Brett explained, busy fiddling with the radio. “Why – what’s up?”

“Nothing, nothing. Isn’t it just a bit – I don’t know – _dangerous_ to have an entirely automated park?”

Lindsey shot Brett a bemused look, but one eyebrow was quirked.

“Uh, no. This park has never had a major error, so I doubt –“

“ _This park,”_ Aleks interrupted loudly, and both he and James winced at the volume. “Is not even in full operation yet. You have no fucking idea what could happen yet, so I wouldn’t rule anything out, dude.”

Brett didn’t respond to that for a moment. “Our system is very advanced. It’s _unlikely_ that anything catastrophic would happen.”

They were approaching a large gate, brown and towering and again the only entrance through a perimeter fence. James squinted up at it despite the glaring sunlight.

 _Jurassic Park_.

The words were blocky and sandwiched between two live fire lanterns. James frowned.

“Uh, dinosaur theme? Is…” he trailed off, under Lindsey and Brett’s gaze when they turned in their seats to look at him. “Is that why I’m here?”

If so, this whole thing was dumb. Also, he found it especially odd that after all that boasting Burnie had done on the phone, about _biological engineering_ and _extensive research_ and _no expenses spared_ , juxtaposed with him silencing himself through the promise of _surprising you, James._

Brett gave him the most baffled look, before he seemed to realise something, mouth widening in what James could only describe as a sadistic grin. “Let me guess. Burnie told you two nothing.”

James nodded, and Aleks shortly followed, repeating the movement.

“Oh,” Brett mused. Lindsey watched them, obviously amused. “Oh, this _will_ be good. I know where we’re going first.”

James frowned. “What?” he asked, just as Aleks asked, “Where?”

Brett smiled again and reached down to his belt to remove his walkie-talkie and hold it up at chin-level, saying a seemingly random and hushed sequence of words James didn’t pick up past the creaking of the opening gate.

They passed through the gates seamlessly – the height of which not unnoticed by Aleks, who muttered a dry, “What the fuck they got in here – King Kong?” – and the car opened out onto huge fields – and a crossroad. The car jittered for a moment, seemingly caught on direction. Brett huffed at this and moved quickly, turning to kneel on his seat and eventually stand, one hand braced on the frame of the Jeep and the other waving at the car behind them.

“Right! Yeah, I know!” He shouted, voice bellowing and causing Aleks to blearily glare at him, clear even through his sunglasses. “Okay!” He shouted, dropping back into his seat just as the car began to move again.

Lindsey grinned at him, before turning to the backseat. “We’re going off-schedule, I guess – Aleks, you okay? I have more Ibruprofen in my bag – I can – “

He cut her off with a disregarding wave. “Nah, nah, I’ll be okay, thanks.”

Lindsey turned back around just as James enquired, “How do you two know each other again?”

They both muttered some variation of words James could only pin down as ‘college’, ‘radio’, and ‘competition’. He frowned but neither seemed willing to repeat themselves, so he dropped it. They drove for a bit, James hardly looking out of the Jeep anymore and instead fiddling with his seatbelt – he was getting a little nervous as they went off-road. Even if they were on a track.

Aleks reached out of the Jeep and tugged off a leaf from a low tree. He ran a hand over it.

“Hey, Mister Bones,” James looked up in discontent and grimaced when a large leaf was shoved into his hands. “You know anything about _Jurassic Park’s_ weird leaves?”

James looked at him, then back down to the piece of foliage in his hands. For one, it was quite big – twice the size of both of his hands put together. It was also an odd shade of green – sort of vivid with darker veins. He flipped it over – it certainly appeared to have originated from a long time ago, yet he had never seen anything like it. Aleks was watching his expectantly.

“I’m, uh, I’m not a palaeobotanist,” That was Brett, he recalled, as the man glanced back from the driver’s seat, hands occupied with a pamphlet of some sorts. “But this – this shouldn’t be here. Just look at these veins – I mean, I would guess that this would go extinct some time in the, ah, cretaceous period. There’s no way, I mean…”

He, with an air of hesitation, ripped off a piece of the leave and peered at it’s innards. The car was slowing, but he hardly noticed. Then it stopped completely, and Lindsey had turned in her seat. He saw her nudge Aleks out of the corner of his eye but he was more focused on dissecting this leaf the best he could with his hands.

Then Aleks stilled and placed a pale hand on James – seemingly by accident and totally reactionary, but it was enough to make James startle and move his hands away, a little anxious about tarnishing the _extinct_ leaf specimen right in front of him. But then Aleks was rising, sneakers coming into James’ view when they planted on the seat.

“Holy fuck,” he whispered, and James continued with the leaf, wondering if he should ask Brett about the weird spongy quality of the stalk. Then Aleks’ weird sweaty hand was back, this time grabbing his hat firmly enough that his fingers dented the fabric and hit James’ head. “James, seriously.” He swatted away the hand, glaring up at him.

“What?”

Aleks opened his mouth, and then closed it again. Then he just pointed.

James followed the line of direction, eyes planting on the grey and sparse trunk of a tree – free of leaves and one of four, all in a crooked rectangle. He frowned. It was nothing unusual – just a tree trunk, like any other, with odd patterns, sure, but nothing so extraordinary it warranted James’ immediate and utmost attention.

Then he raised his gaze, upwards, and upwards, until he had to squint against the bright blue sky. But then he saw it.

The face of a brachiosaurus.

A real, living, breathing brachiosaurus.

He couldn’t feel a nerve in his body as he stood, fumbling the Jeep door open and practically stumbling onto the grass, leaf forgotten on his seat. He stalked towards the legs of the brachiosaurus, hands raised in useless shock, legs wobbly and the cause of his downfall as he flopped onto the ground, landing on his knees and staring up in disbelief. He didn’t realise he had been followed until he felt Aleks’ presence behind him, but he dared not look to him in case this was some sort of hallucination and looking away would cause it to dissipate. Because there was a fucking dinosaur right there, chewing at the leaves on a tree like it was no big deal.

“Holy shit,” he whispered.

“They did it,” Aleks seemed to finish, sunglasses clattering to the ground beside James. “How the fuck did they do it?”

James huffed out a laugh which faded when the brachiosaurus moaned and moved away on its path – revealing an entire valley below flocked with those of the same species and what appeared to be Gallimimus beside them, all drinking from the same river – in cohabitation. James thought he may vomit, faint, or both.

 “It’s warm-blooded,” he whispered, and Aleks was suddenly crouched beside him. “They – the fuckin’ researchers said they were cold – that they lived in _swamps_ to support their necks, but – holy shit. That thing is warm-blooded.”

The brachiosaur in front of them moaned and suddenly threw itself up onto it’s hind legs, front legs braced against the trees and neck extended to reach the tallest leaves. James startled back, along with Aleks, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away.

“Jesus, look at it’s fucking agility! Holy shit!” He exclaimed, hands braced on his knees. God, he may actually throw up.

“We’ve measured it’s speed – nothing compared to the Tyrannosaurus, though.” Brett was saying, and James’ head shot up at the words, mouth suddenly dry and legs even shakier.

“You – you have a –“ He couldn’t get the words out. “The park – it has a –“

“Yeah,” Brett was saying as he approached James’ side. “The park is dinosaur themed.”

Lindsey was laughing.

Aleks had fallen and was sitting on his knees next to James, sunglasses still beside him. He hadn’t said anything. James didn’t think he knew what to say. Neither did he.

Lindsey was telling James to put his head between his knees and to keep breathing. The brachiosaur moaned and slammed it’s front legs back onto the ground, seemingly shaking the entire environment. James couldn’t tear his gaze away.

This was Jurassic Park.

-

It took two hours of tearing James and Aleks away from the Brachiosaurus exhibit, ignoring James’ begging (and bribes) to see the rest of the park immediately, taking James to First Aid to make sure he wouldn’t die, forcing Aleks to change into a blue shirt and shorts because the same paramedic told him he would overheat otherwise, and hauling ass into the Jeeps to return to the Visitor Center until Brett could say, “And this is Jurassic Park’s Laboratory.”

The laboratory wasn’t much, James hated to say. Although he supposed he could describe a lot of things as _nothing much_ now that he had been in the presence of fucking dinosaurs. But the lab appeared to be a single room, large and rectangular, with stairs leading to an observation deck and a few doors to other rooms, unseen to the guests. It was warm, too, almost matching the temperature outside. As they passed through the lab, they passed by the stairs and looking up, James could glimpse a room shown from a glass wall, bathed in blue light and seemingly containing cylindrical pillars of… something.

“And this is Khail, one of our scientists,” Brett introduced them to a man in the white coat before them who, after turning, left hand preoccupied with holding an egg, was revealed to be a grinning man with dark hair and gleaming eyes – surprisingly young but nonetheless rather intelligent-looking. “Khail, this is Aleks, mathematician, Lindsey, who you know, and James, a palaeontologist.”

After a brief shaking of hands from every one in the group, he smiled, gently setting down the egg on the bay behind him, which turned out to be a well-shaped container, filled with straw and lit up with yellow LEDs from above. He snapped his glove off the now-free hand and discarded it on the edge of the well, flexing his fingers briefly before shoving both hands in the pockets of his lab coat. “Hi,” he said. “Well, I uh, work here. Mainly in, you know, hatching and incubating, but we’re also looking at some other methods of genetic modification.”

James was already peering around him to the bay. He had to see these eggs. But something he said instead caught his attention.

“Genetic modification?” He questioned, temporarily inspecting a tray being held by another scientist as she rushed past, tennis shoes squeaking on the tile. It appeared to be full of vials, individually labelled but impossible to decipher in the blur of her passing. “What’d you mean by that?”

“Oh, none of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park are ‘pure’, so to speak,” Khail explained, moving aside as to allow the group to move closer to the bay and inspect the eggs there, joined by a few accompanying scientists who were all speaking to each other very matter-of-fact and pointing deliberately at certain eggs, flipping them over and poking at their tough exteriors. “You know how, ah, your guys have recently discovered that the animals would have been feathered – especially the predators? Well, we’ve spliced their genetic sequence to give them some more of that typical ‘dinosaur look’ – you know, the scales and the claws, that sort of thing.”

James nodded, more focused on watching a scientist turn over an egg.

“Isn’t that kind of dangerous?” Aleks was asking, and in response to a muffled _what do you mean_ from Khail, “I mean, how can you expect these animals to be able to, uh, survive in the habitat they did without the – what do you call it? The things they had?” and after a second, “The attributes they had, I mean. The qualities, or whatever.”

“These animals are very well looked after-“

“Oh, yeah, man, no doubt. But isn’t it ill-advised to - fuckin’ spoon-feed - these animals who, millions of years ago, would have relied on nobody but themselves?”

“What are you saying?” Lindsey asked this time, and James spared the situation a glance. Aleks was now reclining on a stool beside a clunky, but high-tech, monitor, with Brett and Lindsey opposite him and Khail washing his hands with a nearby sink.

“I’m _saying_ ,” Aleks began, hands coming up uselessly before falling back into their usual position, slung over the back of the chair and crossed at his wrists. “Maybe these animals are smarter than you think – and that keeping them like housecats will be your big mistake,” Then he shrugged, making eye contact with James and, chillingly, maintaining it. “But what do I know, huh?”

James tore his eyes away and thought for a moment, before Brett interrupted that process. “We keep very good watch on every single animal – they’re all GPS tracked, all monitored by the second and checked up on in person each hour, every day. There’s very little room for your conspiracy to unfold.”

The squeak of a chair and the lack of voice told everyone that the conversation was seemingly over.

“When are these gonna hatch?” James asked, and it seemed as if all tension dissolved with that one question.

Khail approached and stood by him. “Uh, few weeks. We’re trying to hold them off until we get our first few VIP guests – sponsors and the like. We figure they’ll respond better to baby raptors than they will to the adults.”

“Uh-huh,” and then a thought struck him. “So, how has the park gotten the DNA in the first place? For these dinosaurs, I mean.”

“Oh, that varies,” Khail began, pulling on a glove again and moving the egg further away, so that it was closer to the light. “For some of the bigger animals, we were able to use mosquitos preserved in amber – eh, there’s a whole video you can watch on this in the Visitor Center’s lobby, I won’t spoil it, or whatever – but for some of the smaller predators, we’ve used bone marrow in a unique process to extract the DNA.”

James tried to pretend to only be slightly interested. “Oh, you’ve borrowed bones from museums, or somethin’?”

“Something like that, yeah,” Khail replied.

Brett coughed. “Well, we’re running late on our schedule anyway, so we’ll have to cut this visit short. Uh, Khail, if you’d like to join us for dinner, you’re welcome – “

“Can’t. We’ve got a new shipment from the mainland comin’ in, uh, around an hour, so we’re all headed that way. And then obviously there’s the boat at eight, so I have to grab my bags – thanks anyway, though.”

Brett raised a hand as if to say _you’re welcome_ before he was practically herding the group away, out of the lab. They had to pass through a metal detector and three sets of pass-coded doors, just like the entrance, before they could leave and enter the Visitor Center lobby for the first time.

The room was vast – tall and domed, with sand coloured walls (matching the exterior, James realised) and wooden beams supporting a rotund glass ceiling. The floor was black marble, shiny enough that James could see his reflection in it as the group dawdled across the floor, behind Brett who seemed to know exactly where he was headed. The Visitor Center appeared to be still under construction, workers standing on scaffolding in every direction, but for the most part it was distinguishable as a lobby. Two skeletons, obviously fake in James’ eyes but still decent quality, stood proud in the middle of the room – a Tyrannosaurus Rex and Alamosaurus, both in fighting stances and suspended by wires. He looked past them and at the painting big enough to cover the wall, depicting what he could infer to be dinosaurs in a picturesque natural landscape, complete with cropped grass and a sunset. He almost scoffed. To either side of this view was a set of stairs, both leading up to a walkway high above.

“Higher!” Cried a voice from above, and James looked above the group to see the beginning of a red banner fluttering as it was pulled tight. He paced back a couple of steps, nearly bumping into Aleks who dodged him hastily and continued, in order to read it properly.

 _When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth_ , it read.

That was the tackiest he had seen so far.

“Ordinarily,” Brett was saying up ahead, and James did a little jog to catch up with the group. “We would eat in the V.I.P Dining Room. But Burnie isn’t here, so the kitchen staff have asked us to just take a seat in the café.”

“Why?” Lindsey asked.

“Because we’re not important enough,” Aleks quipped.

“It’s because,” Brett quickly said, taking a brief pause. “The dining room is underground and the lift is out of order temporarily, so the staff would have to haul the dishes three flights beneath us.”

“Sounds like bullshit to me,” Aleks mumbled, and Lindsey nudged him with a sound of discontent. James just followed them into the café – which wasn’t bad looking, actually.

The sign above the door read _Les Gigantes_ and although James suffered from a case of high school French, he could infer that the title had something to do with ‘big dinosaurs’. Or something. Inside was rather generic – a large cafeteria, with the same limestone walls and tacky murals. The tables were arranged sensibly, covered in white tablecloths and with wooden chairs. He could see the kitchen doors and hear a little bustle behind them even. Aside from that, the cafeteria was empty, spare for a few construction workers on one table and a group of scientists on another, undoubtedly on break. A waiter met them at the door and greeted them warmly, showing them to a table for six – leaving two seats spare. James didn’t question it too much and picked up the menu in front of him, inspecting his choices.

It appeared the menu advertised a buffet – he supposed that was to be a future amenity – as well as a variety of regular dishes and a kid’s menu. The basics, really.

“Well, order whatever you want. The kitchens stocked beyond need, anyway.” Brett mumbled the last part.

“Whys that?” Aleks asked.

Lindsey flipped a page in her menu. “It was the same last year – they stock food for the employees or whatever but it’s always in excess. Nobody knows why.”

That was weird.

“That’s weird,” Aleks voiced for him, only responded to with Brett and Lindsey’s simultaneous eyebrow raise and head tilt.

They ended up settling on their options and ordering individual and rather varying meals. James’ menu was being taken from him just as the doors to the café slammed open and –

“I’m here!” Yelled a voice from across the place. “Christ, I’m here. Holy shit.”

They all turned in their seats. Lumbering towards them, portable laptop (easily as thick as an encyclopaedia) shoved under one arm, was a young man, possibly an intern, with dark hair, glasses, and a beard  that didn’t quite seem to suit his face. He wasn’t dressed in any sort of uniform and didn’t have a lab coat – instead he was wearing a graphic shirt with an unknown symbol across the chest and dark pants with sneakers. He approached the table in a slow jog, slamming the laptop down on the surface and falling into the chair next to Lindsey, throwing out a shaky hand.

“Alec – “  he panted. “I’m Alec, I’m in IT here, I’m an intern.”

Lindsey shook his hand first, followed by James. Aleks, seemingly too far away, just raised his hand in a lazy wave.

“I’ve asked Alec to join us,” Brett said through a mouthful of the bread that had been placed on their table as an appetiser. “He’s somethin’ of a computer pro, I guess. Configured all the GPS on his own – and he also works a little on PR.”

“And he’s an intern?” Aleks asked, only answered by a ‘eeh’ sound from Brett.

“Not up to me,” he clarified, just as Lindsey gestured to the laptop.

“This has the GPS tracking on it?” She asked, and Alec nodded hurriedly, still catching his breath as he flung open the laptop. It booted up slowly, black screen showing a single green loading bar after he turned it on. It then asked for a passcode, which Alec gave with a fluttering of hands across the keyboard, subtly concealed from the group. James watched the screen with a scrunched brow, watched Alec navigate the pixelated hand across the screen and double clicked on a single application marked ‘GPS’.

The screen that opened up was arguably basic – a copy of the map of the island he had seen Brett with a few times – it was bright and easy to understand. But the one variation from the paper map were the squares of different colours dotted along the map, moving every so often and totally out of sync. Alec pointed to one, a green one, at the far right of the island.

“Uh, so this one here, for example,” he pressed a button, and it zoomed into the area, where the square moved much more. “That’s the T-Rex. We only have one, so – it’s pretty easy to track.”

“And these are tracked through – what? – cameras? Thermal… things?” James enquired, and Lindsey answered for him.

“Uh, no. The dinosaurs are microchipped, like dogs. It’s a quick process done from adolescence,” she picked up a tab of salt from a container in the middle of the table and shook it slightly. “About the size of this. Not harmful.”

Aleks eyed up the salt warily.

The food arrived – Brett had ordered a salad, Aleks the sushi, Lindsey some sort of pasta dish, and James had just gone for the steak. But now all he could envision was spitting out some sort of chip onto his plate as he chewed. Alec quietly asked for a premade sandwich – likely in order not to hold up the group.

“Okay,” Brett said when halfway through his food, pushing the bowl away temporarily and fishing through his bag, which had been slung over the back of the chair upon arrival. “We’ve got a tight schedule from here on out. After this we’re visiting velociraptors – “

“Why not just go on the visitor tour?” Aleks asked, already done with his food and idly sucking on a single chopstick. James regarded him in a way he hadn’t before – sure, he was young, but there was a certain level of arrogance about him, the sort usually exerted in the face of insecurity. He was familiar with it.

Brett sighed, as if trying to be patient.  “The velociraptors haven’t got a place on the tour yet – we’re still working on their exhibit. There were a few… mishaps in the process that prolonged it.”

Lindsey seemed to consider this. “But the velociraptors weren’t in the tour when I left either. How long has this been going on?”

“Non-stop, basically.”

“What kind of mishaps?” James asked, although he was sure he already knew the answer.

“The kind that I’m sure resulted in a few deaths InGen are intent on covering up,” Aleks said, and then, to Brett, “Right?”

Brett’s mouth was in a firm line as he whisked his eyes around the table, holding on Lindsey for a moment longer. “That’s not your concern,” he said stiffy, turning back to Aleks.

Aleks inclined his head back, eyebrows raised. “Right.”

“The velociraptors,” Lindsey began, although she seemed unsure herself. “Have been difficult at times – in that they’re hard to exhibit. Like, uh, tigers, at the zoo – you know? – they tend to hide. Sometimes. It’s like that.”

James wasn’t sure that was the best analogy, but he let it slide because Brett was continuing.

“So, we’re visiting the velociraptors. I – uh – I had a little bit of a role there, so we shouldn’t need to bring in the other gamekeeper – I’m sure he’s headed for the boat, by now, anyway.”

“Brett is also a game warden,” Lindsey clarified. “He used to be in the military, so he was hired straight after hearing that he also had a degree in palaeobotany.”

Brett looked away, obviously a little embarrassed. “Uh, but not anymore. Now I just work on maintaining the animals’ environment. Like a glorified gardener.” He ended that with a short giggle, one of many, and James was just now realising how uncharacteristic that was for such a character.

Aleks seemed only vaguely interested in all of this. “What’s the boat thing all about?”

Alec hummed, setting down his sandwich. “Uh, most of the employees are getting on a boat to the mainland and staying there for a few weeks – the parks not open yet and it’s a holiday, so – oh, and there’s a forecast for a storm, but we don’t think it’ll hit the island.”

Aleks barked out a laugh – sudden enough that James was sure everybody at the table jumped simultaneously, followed by a collective questioning glare. Aleks just waved a hand in disregard, chopstick clattering down onto his plate.

“How will the park function, exactly?” James asked, finishing his final bite and pushing the plate away. “Without employees, I mean.”

“We have automation,” Alec gestured to his laptop loosely. “And a fair amount do stay back – just the minimum needed in case of any failure of the technology here.”

“…Okay,” Brett said, finally, picking his schedule back up. “After that, we’re set to go on the tour, which is around two hours long. Then we can get you all back to your hotel rooms. Tomorrow is pretty much just assessments and boring stuff like that. Anyone have the time?”

“Uh, yes. It’s… six.” Lindsey answered after a glance to her watch.

The waiters came by, stacking plates and clearing the table effectively. It seemed to be tie to go because Brett picked up his walkie-talkie and spoke into it, calling for the Jeeps swiftly. Then he stood, closely followed by the rest of the group as they left the restaurant, mumbling ‘thank-you’ to the restaurant staff as they passed.

Indeed, it seemed as if the oncoming presence of a boat was hugely effective – most of the construction workers they had passed upon entering had vanished, and James had to assume it was the same with the laboratory staff. The Visitor Center was eerily quiet as they walked through it, footsteps echoing off the walls. When they exited, the sun was still fairly high in the sky and the Jeeps were indeed outside, but not accompanied by any guards as they had been before. James regarded this with little anxiety – if something did go wrong, he didn’t like this level of vulnerability. But, on closer inspection, these vehicles were not the same as the ones they had arrived in – for one, these had actual windows above the doors and in the roof. That was slightly comforting.

“Okay, so,” Brett was saying. “We have two cars – I was thinking me, Lindsey and Alec in one – the front one, that is – and James and Aleks in the other.”

James closed his eyes, trying not to express his dismay too much. Of course, he didn’t _mind_ Aleks. It was just that he was a rampant sceptic, obviously ignorant and entirely up his own ass. But he supposed he could cope for two hours. It was only two hours. Hey, maybe he’d learn something. About math, or whatever.

“Sure,” Aleks said easily, already climbing into the driver’s seat.

James shot Brett a glance as he walked around the back of the car to reach the passenger’s seat. He stopped him by stepping forwards.

“We’ll be able to reach you via the radio – there’s a manual in there, it’s pretty easy to get. It’s just to… uh – balance out or split opinion, or whatever. Specific instructions from Burnie.” Brett explained, and James just nodded in a contempt sort of acceptance before continuing and getting into the passenger seat.

Aleks had his feet up on the wheel and was fiddling with the radio, obviously just figuring out the controls without even sparing a glance to the manual. James watched him in the same disdain you would have for a child finger painting all over their mother’s new walls. He found the manual in the glove compartment. Like Brett said, it was easy to understand. The manual was one page and consisted of turning the radio on and off, speaking into it, listening, and calling in an emergency. He waited until Aleks had stilled in his insistent efforts and leaned over to press a single button. The radio whirred once, and then a cool female voice was remarking ‘ _Welcome to Jurassic Park_ ’.

Aleks leaned back in his seat. “So, you’re a – what is it again? A pal-on-tal-i-gest?”

James gave him his best ‘are you serious’ look.

“I’m a palaeontologist.”

“Right, right. So you scrub at dirt all day?”

James tilted his head, trying to keep his cool; That was before he realised that Aleks was actually joking, only indicated by his coy smile in his peripheral. “Oh,” he articulated, face splitting into a soft grin. “Uh, kind of. What do you do? Type on calculators all day?”

Weak comeback, but he was just thankful Aleks was actually trying to maintain civil conversation.

“I wish man, I wish,” he replied. “I was in the middle of a lecture at Harvard when I got the call.”

“Oh, you’re still at school?” James asked - not to be rude, of course, but he actually had no idea how old Aleks was. He looked a little past university, though – and Lindsey _had_ mentioned he had a PhD.

“I was teaching a class.” He stated quietly, seeming a little hesitant to say so.

James nodded, feeling embarrassment swell in his chest. Of course he was teaching a class. Obviously.

“Oh, cool,” he said, a little weakly.

The car suddenly started with a rumble of the engine, and Brett’s voice came through the radio after a brief crackle. He could see them up ahead, silhouettes in the rear window of their car.

“Hey guys. The tour will start as soon as we head into the park again, so if there’s anything you wanna ask, now is the time. Obviously you can intercept the radio at any time, but the tours pretty good, so I don’t recommend it,” he ended the sentence with a dry laugh, clearly sarcastic. “Uh, there’s a few stops outside each enclosure, we don’t recommend you leave the vehicle, but… I guess you can. If you want,” there was a little bit of static from the radio and a faint chortle from Lindsey. “Uh, that’s it. Enjoy the ride.”

The radio crackled, and then all noise halted entirely and the car started to move finally, gliding on the track effortlessly and taking a gradual curve into the direction James knew the gate was in. The radio made a little jingle noise.

“Welcome to Jurassic Park,” said a now male, but an equally friendly voice. “You are now entering the lost world of the prehistoric past, a world of creatures long gone from the face of the Earth, which you are privileged to see for the first time.”

“Here we fuckin’ go,” Aleks mumbled.

They passed through the towering gate again but this time, as it closed, James noted, it felt so much more final.


	2. primus impetus

Eventually, the tour speech ends, seemingly automatically and as soon as they go off the pre-emptive tour route and, according to the maintenance signs they passed, towards the Velociraptor enclosure. With that deviation came an eerie silence from the radio, one that was softly filled by James tapping his fingertips on the window as they drove the short journey. When that wasn’t enough, Aleks huffed, throwing his hands up slightly and slapping them back down on his knees, feet now firmly planted on the ground.

“You heard of Murphy’s law?” He asks, voice oddly strained, as if he had been wanting to ask it for a while.

James slowly turned his head to cast him an unsure look. “Maybe,” and then, as if realising the condescending nature of that answer, reiterated, “Is it a math thing?”

“Nah,” Aleks said, stretching his arms out in front of him. James realised he was subconsciously annoyed at his insistent fidgeting. “I, uh, learnt it at NASA – had a brief stint there, uh, - but it’s a – what do you call it? A philosophy thing. What can go wrong will go wrong.”

James tilted his head back, eyebrows raised. He suddenly felt an urge to tug his hat down over his head and block the entire conversation out. Instead, he prevailed. “Okay.”

If that could be called prevailing.

Aleks seemed to realise the deficit nature of his statement. “What I _mean_ ,” he went further, thin hands moving up to gesture loosely and uselessly. “This park is a – it’s a prime example of that, right?”

James considered this. “You don’t like the park?”

Aleks shrugged. “On the fence – but you get me, right? I mean, they’re _dinosaurs_ for fuck’s sake, in a park designed for kids. You don’t think that’s a disaster waiting to happen?”

James sighed, and leant his head against the window, expecting to be jostled around considering their off-road status, but instead the smooth drive left him rather stationary. With a grunt and a shrug, he decided to amuse the guy. “Yeah, probably,” and then, with a toothy grin, “But dinosaurs are pretty fuckin’ cool, right?”

Aleks shook his head. “You’d think that, I guess.”

There was a long silence after that, Aleks beginning to tap his feet insistently.

“So, you got anyone at home? On the… dig site, or something?” He asked, voice unnecessarily even – like he was actively trying to sound as uninterested as possible. James’ eyes slid over to him.

“The dig site?” He repeated, mouth gradually stretching into a grin. “No, dude. I mean, I work with… fuckin’ friends, but no. I’m not married or anything – I don’t really have time,” and then, quieter, “or the money.”

Aleks’ straightened up at the reply, so slight James wouldn’t have noticed if not for how his knee jumped with the movement.

“What about you?” He asked, eyes catching on a sign they passed – he thought he read ‘East Dock’. He idly thought about the boat leaving in – according to his watch – around forty minutes.

“Uh, had a divorce – I don’t know – five, six months ago? Second one in five years. But right now, no.”

“Oh. Sorry to hear that,” James sighed, eyeing up Aleks again. He looked a little young to be divorced. _Twice._ But he could see how. “Any kids?”

It was Aleks’ turn to laugh. “Fuck no, dude. Do I look like I could handle kids?”

James smiled. “No,”

The laughter settled. “Yeah, no,” Aleks mumbled, lounging back against the window and facing James. “But, uh, speaking of kids…”

James blinked at him, somewhat unsure of where the conversation was going.

“I have a nephew – not really a nephew, more kid of a friend – but, uh, he’s a big dinosaur fan. Huge. And, uh, I know we just met, and all, but,” and he was reaching into his back pocket, looking troubled when he found nothing and resigned when he seemed to remember the whereabouts of his belongings (in his hotel room, hopefully, by now) “ _but_ I don’t have my wallet,” he laughed nervously.

“What… what do you – what?” James stammered, entirely confused as to what Aleks wanted that seemed to be so awkward.

“Will you take my nephew to your weird dig site next summer?” He rushed out. “Only if, you know, you take kids, or whatever – it’s just, it would be so great. His mom would really appreciate it.”

They stared at each other for a moment.

James would never admit it at this moment, but he wasn’t very good with kids. But there were other, better excuses to say _no_ to having a random kid on what could be a severely fragile site. School trips were another story – he hardly interacted with them, and they normally watched from a distance. But this kid would be his responsibility. So he should have said no.

“Sure, man,” he says, and thought ahead to weeks spent explaining bones to some hyperactive nine-year-old, and grimaced. But nothing beat the ridiculous smile encompassing Aleks’ features – the most genuine he had seen so far.

“Oh, shit. Thanks – it means a lot, dude,” they stared at each other, Aleks’ crinkled grin meeting James’ vaguely uncomfortable smile. “Uh… I’ll – we can figure it out. Just… thanks.”

“Yeah,” he softly said, so quiet it almost wasn’t heard over the rumbling of the engine. He was almost unsettled seeing Aleks who, before now, had, in his eyes, been a deeply sardonic character, whose strongest emotions seemed to be jeering at Lindsey and making fun of people under his breath, have a genuine positive response to… anything.

The car suddenly braked, throwing both of them slightly forward. Alek’s hand shot out, hovering just in front of James’ torso, as if to protect him from the dashboard. The bump was momentary and they both immediately leant back in their seats again with the momentum of the brakeage, but Aleks’ hand prevailed until he seemed to realise and immediately withdrew it. James pretended not to notice and instead looked out of the window. Sure enough, they had driven from the forest to a plains, not dissimilar to the Brachiosaur environment. Except this one was sparse of animals and was instead just populated by a cement paddock – topped with an electric fence. It appeared to be below ground so there was no way of seeing inside if they weren’t on the viewing deck, a floor around 3 feet below the start of the electric fence, led to by stone steps from the ground, heavily gated.

Aleks leant forward, seeing the same thing. “That’s the paddock, for the – what was it?”

“Velociraptors,” and then, to Aleks’ blank stare. “Ah, predators. One and a half feet tall, give or take. Like, uh, big chickens.”

“They don’t sound so bad.”

James made an ‘ehh’ noise. “You should see their claws. They, uh, they just _crack,”_ he made a curling motion with one finger, pointed towards the underside of his wrist. “Right in their prey’s head. Boom. Killed instantly.”

Aleks grimaced. “Shit.”

Brett tapping on James’ window startled them both, to the extent of James shouting something incoherent in surprise. Brett and Aleks both laughed at that, and James sulked for a second before opening the door, purposely fast, just to make Brett jump back. He got out, boots landing on the grass and looking around.

“How is it still light?” He asked, more of an attempt to avert the previous awkward situation.

“It won’t be for long,” Brett said, squinting up at the slightly dimmed sky and the sun, just slightly concealed by trees on the horizon. Then his arms came back down, crossed across his chest, and spoke, almost as an afterthought, “Might have to turn on the lights during the tour, actually.

“I thought so,” Lindsey said, coming up behind Brett and followed closely by Alec, who was now wearing a backpack, hands free of the laptop.

Aleks was standing between his open door and the interior of the car, one foot on the rim of the opening, the other planted on the ground. One arm was loosely draped over the door.

A scream erupted from the paddock suddenly, so sudden they all seemed to react, heads whipping around to peer at the enclosure, as if expecting a human to rush out, bleeding profusely and screaming bloody murder. But there was nothing.

“That’s them,” Brett said nonchalantly, half-preoccupied with closing James’ door.

“The –“ Aleks began,  watching as Brett rounded the front of the car and began to cross the short distance to the entry gate for the paddock. He looked to the remaining group. “That’s the velociraptors?”

Lindsey nodded, but James remained puzzled. There had been research, tons of it, that indicated that the raptors hardly vocalised at all. They were solitary animals, after all.

James began to tread across the ground. He heard rushed footsteps behind him and turned to meet Alec, who was matching his pace at his side. He could hear Aleks and Lindsey quietly talking behind them. Alec seemed unsure of where to look or what to say. Finally, he seemed to give up and raised his head to meet James’ blank look.

“You seen the raptors before?” James asked if only to break the silence.

“Oh,” Alec responded, glancing away. “Uh, no. No, I’m sort of not comfortable with… them.”

James shrugged. “I mean, they’re vicious, sure. But they’re only small, you know.”

Alec’s eyes widened uncharacteristically and he opened his mouth to say something else. Brett beat him to it.

“Okay, from here, you stay close,” he said, and Aleks mumbled something about it only being a small platform. There was a thud noise, likely Lindsey hitting him, and a muffled _ow_ from him shortly thereafter. Brett continued. “Uh, don’t touch the fence – it is electric. 10,000 volts.”

He looked around the group, gave a sharp nod, and turned to unlock the gate. Once that was open, they could pile in and climb the stairs to the platform. The platform was simple, white, with a fence that reached James’ waist on every edge facing the plains. The one edge that didn’t was the electric once, which was preceded by four feet of cement, the electric fence, and barbed wire, that spanned over the roof of the paddock. He couldn’t see inside yet, but greenery peeked above the cement. The floor was sort of chalky, he guessed. It scuffed his boots.

Brett was the last to enter, locking the gate behind him. He climbed the steps two-at-a-time and, once on the platform, rounded the group and stood a few feet away from the wall of the paddock. He clapped his hands together. “We call this the Raptor Pit. It houses six velociraptors, all adult, all female,” He seemed to look around at the group, at James’ intense stare, Lindsey’s quiet reluctance, Alec’s reluctance, and Aleks’ bored expression. “Questions?”

There was a silence. Lindsey raised her hand. “They still wear the tracking collars?”

“No. They chewed them off,” Brett replied grimly. “We’re… uh, still working on more durable ones.”

James raised his hand. “Do the raptors fight?”

“Fight? Like… each other?” Brett asked, cracking a smile. “Uh, no. They work as a pack, we find.”

James frowned. That definitely wasn’t right. In all his research, there was one thing he could agree with other palaeontologists on. The raptors were solo. That’s why they seemed to hardly make any noise – they didn’t need to.

“Isn’t it a little small for six?” Aleks asked before he could share this correction.

Brett shrugged. “It’s a temporary measure. They had a bigger paddock, but there was difficulty with security there.”

“What do you mean?” He asked, clearly pressing him for more answers.

Brett looked away, toward the fence, suddenly looking very uncomfortable. “They chewed through the electric fence. Took it in turns – systematic attack, we call it. All recaptured.”

“Casualties?” Aleks asked, voice oddly soft now.

“No,” he denied, shaking his head. “One injury.”

James decided not to comment on how he looked at Lindsey after that. Instead, he approached the fence warily, about three steps away before the mechanical screech of a machine stopped him in his tracks. Brett reached out, arm blocking him from walking further. With his free hand, he checked his watch. A single employee emerged from the building, waving a hand in a ‘hello’ to the group, warmly returned by Brett,

The group watched as a crane rose from the connecting building to the paddock, carrying a – James blinked. It was a whole cow, dangling from the crane and mooing incessantly, clearing bothered by the entire ordeal. They watched it rise and move in a perfect circular motion until it was hovering over the small opening to the paddock. It lowered slowly. James looked down into what little he could see of the interior of the paddock, and the sudden rustling of leaves was alarming on its own. There were more of the screams, a mass grumbling noise that reminded James a little of his dog when she got tired on walks, and the horrific sound of flesh being torn. The cow made a miserable, guttural noise. Then the leaves rustled once more. Silence prevailed. The crane hummed, lifting the cow once again.

The cow was gone.

“Christ,” slipped from James’ lips. They had fucking devoured it. In seconds. _Christ._

They all looked on in silence, almost seeming to mourn the cow in an odd, collective way. Then Alec made a grunting noise and backed away to lean over the fence, coughing into his hand. It was the smell, James supposed. Strong and metallic, enough so that it made his eyes water. He wasn’t used to flesh. Only bone.

Aleks, a little ways behind him, was already one step down.

Brett crossed his arms over his chest. “We should get going.”

“Yeah,” Lindsey immediately agreed. “We’re, uh, losing light.”

There was a collective sound of agreement before they were all embarking for the steps and exiting the paddock after Brett unlocked the gate once more. He locked it once they were all out, leaving him to fall behind as the rest of the group crossed the plains and made their way towards the car.

Lindsey matched James’ pace.

“So, what’d you think?” She asked, voice unusually soft. Up ahead, Aleks and Alec appeared to be enthusiastically discussing something about the laptop.

James inclined his head back and inhaled. The air, now slightly cooler than before, was refreshing. Lindsey looked to him with an amused smile. “It’s… uh, it’s cool. Yeah. I kind of just can’t believe what I’m seein’, you know?” He exhaled through his nose.

Lindsey grinned. “Good, I’m… glad you think so,” she then paused, seeming a little conflicted as her hands floated up to gesture loosely in front of her. “But I don’t think it’s gonna roll.”

“What?” James exclaimed, voice unnaturally high. Lindsey fixed him with a surprised look at his volume.

“It’s just,” and then she paused. Inhaled, ducked her head once, kicked at the soil with one boot. “I don’t know. Something tells me.”

Brett was approaching.

“Okay, well, I think it’s gonna be great,” James said, more to convince himself than anything. Sure, he was impressed at _real-life dinosaurs_ , but he had to admit there was a feeling of uncertainty about the park. Almost like dread. “The park isn’t dangerous – right, Brett?”

Brett, who had been passing them, stopped, glanced at the two of them. A grin quickly plastered itself onto his face – a customer service smile, James would describe it as. He was familiar with the strained expression. The beaming look was twitchy though, and eventually settled into a firm smile. “Sure. We’ve taken every precaution necessary.  Uh… there’s, you know. Very little risk here.”

“Oh my fucking God,” came a voice from ahead, and all their heads seemed to whip up and towards the source – which was Alec, who, seemingly mid-way through explaining the mechanics of the GPS system to Aleks, had been greeted with an error message so large James could see it from where he was standing and emitting a beeping noise not unlike an alarm. “Jesus Christ!” Came another cry. Alec had faltered a few steps back, and Aleks was regarding him with a level of alarm.

James blinked, and Brett and Lindsey had already taken off running towards him. He, after a moment of dumbfounded hesitation, followed, knees feeling as if they were made of lead as he sprinted after them, boots ploughing into the soft ground. When he reached the group, he was greeted with the sight of Alec frantically typing into his laptop, eyes comically wide. Brett stood over him, hands out like he was unsure of how to react. Lindsey was much the same, but this time she was at Aleks’ side. James slowed to a stop opposite Alec. A velociraptor cawed, loud enough that it made them all startle.

“-I’m trying, I think-“ Alec was saying, and Brett was mumbling something beyond James’ hearing range. Lindsey’s eyes were fixated on the screen. Aleks had taken to clutching Lindsey’s arm – seemingly so he didn’t collapse – and remaining quiet, lips a tight line on his face. “I don’t-“

“It’s not a-“ Brett began, interrupted by Alec suddenly slamming his hand down on the keyboard. The beeping abruptly stopped. They stood there in shock for a moment, seemingly recovering from… whatever that was.

“What the fuck was that?” James squawked, hands flying up to gesticulate wildly.

There was no reply for a moment before Alec, voice weak, finally answered. “Brach… Brachiosaur enclosure. Security went down for - for a second.”

He absorbed the words for a moment. The possibility that, even for a _second_ , that an enclosure just lost power. Even if it was just the brachiosaurs. “Oh,” he said, unusually soft. “Oh. It’s… back now, though?”

Brett nodded. “Yeah, yeah,” he inhaled sharply, seemingly trying to regain his composure. “Just a hiccup,” and then, with a cautionary hand. “I swear, that doesn’t usually happen. It’s not… Well, sometimes it happens – it’s just, we operate like… I don’t know, Disney Land. Rides go down occasionally – uh. You know. For a moment. But we’re good at maintenance, I swear.”

James narrowed his eyes. All he could hear was his mother’s voice – she was always good at seeing the deeper intent in people – not that Brett’s was malicious, no. He just clearly had a lot of care for the dinosaurs.

They stood in silence for a moment, the only noise being a click and rustling as Alec closed the laptop and placed it back in his bag. Brett peered up at the sky.

“We’re losing daylight. We should…” He threw a hand towards the direction of the cars, hesitated, and only then turned and began to walk again, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.

Alec followed him immediately, clearly slightly spooked. He definitely was skittish, throwing little glances in every direction once or twice a minute. That was unnerving. Lindsey followed only after offering the remaining two a little shrug and an exhale. He watched her carefully avoid a sapling as she walked, heavy boots kicking up a little dirt behind her. Aleks huffed, throwing his head back and fingers twitching at his side. Obviously a smoker, James realised.

“Disney Land,” Aleks mused, rolling his head to point a disbelieving grin in James’ direction, clear even through his sunglasses. “What a shitty fuckin’ comparison. You know, if – fuckin’ – ‘It’s a Small World’ breaks down, the puppets won’t, uh, eat the guests.”

He sniffed, kicked at the ground, and began to walk, trailing after Lindsey. He, too, avoided the sapling. James did the same.

Five minutes later, they were back in the cars. James and Aleks sat in the front car, this time James in the driver’s seat and Aleks in the passenger. Behind them, in the second car, sat Brett, Lindsey and Alec, who were smiling in conversation like the error had never happened. But as James said his brief ‘see you later’ to the crew, he didn’t miss the flash of fear – or something worse – across Alec’s expression.

He made a ‘oof’ noise when he landed in the driver’s seat. Aleks already had his feet up on the dashboard – again – and he turned to look at him with a perfectly straight face.

“Hey,” he greeted like they hadn’t seen each other in the last thirty seconds. “I think we’re fucked.”

The car doors closed and locked – the click was audible even over Aleks’ words.

“Oh yeah?” James replied, preoccupied with trying to push his seat back – feet braced against the dashboard and one hand pulling the lever down the side of the chair. The seat shot back suddenly, startling James. However, he let it stay there and put his feet back down. “Like the park or us personally?”

He tilted his head, considering the question. “Both.”

The car started with a rumble, and the speakers crackled.

“Hey guys,” greeted Lindsey, and a quick glance in the mirror on James’ door, neatly bordered with the disclaimer that _objects in mirror are closer than they appear_ , showed her clearly speaking into the radio all whilst retying her hair. Brett seemed busy with something out of sight, head turned downwards towards his lap. “So, we’re about to go back on the tour route now. Let us know if you need anything. Uh… have fun.”

The radio crackled again.

The car began to move, gliding down the track and gracefully rolling around the corner, bringing them into the clearing they had just stood in and past the raptor paddock. Without the trees in his eyeline, it was easy to see just how quickly it had gotten dark – where the sky had been a gently goldening blue, it was now a purple, the sun completely out of sight behind the tree-topped mountains on the horizon. There was no sign of the moon yet, though.

From there, the car rolled down a slight hill on the track, turning right and back onto the pre-planned tour route.

“So, what, uh, brought you here?” James asked, idly trying to make conversation amidst the stifling silence that had overcome the car. “I know Lindsey but… what convinced you?”

Aleks, who had been swivelled in his seat and reaching under the back of it, straightened up with a small backpack in his hands – it was his, James realised. Where they had theirs taken in their rooms, he had hidden his in plain sight. Aleks unzipped the backpack and began to pull out familiar items of clothing. He took off his thin jacket and unbuttoned his shirt with very little hesitation.

“Me and Lindsey are good friends, uh…” he paused, fixing the sweater in his hands and laying it in his lap before going back to his buttons. James, for the first time, spotted the flashes of tattoos on his arms – vivid swirls of bright colours – as well as some sort of shape on his chest. He looked away immediately. “She was nervous about the park. Wants to shut it down, you know. Before anything else can happen. She figured _I_ was the one who would be able to catch any mistakes.”

“What did happen?” James asked after a second of deliberation.

Aleks threw the sweater on, fixing his hair soon after. “Dude, that’s not for me to say,” then he paused, pulling his mouth into a grimace. “…But I think you already know, right? Loose raptors got her. She left the island as soon as she could, uh, walk again. I guess.”

He was unbuttoning his pants with one hand, clutching a pair of black jeans from his backpack with the other. James politely turned his gaze away again. There was the rustling of clothes in the silence before Aleks spoke again. “What convinced you?”

“Oh,” he replied, shifting in his seat. “Burns agreed to fund the dig for, like, the next three years. If I came along.”

Aleks made an ‘oh’ sound, followed by a squeak of the seat and the bag being zipped back up. James glanced to his right. He was now dressed the same as he had been before he was proclaimed to be an idiot looking for heat stroke by a paramedic.

A fat raindrop splashed onto the windscreen, so hard it almost seemed as if the glass would crack. They both startled, settled, and gave a nervous huff of laughter.

“That’ll be the storm, I guess,” Aleks mumbled, reaching forward and hovering his hand over the radio.

“What, that one drop?” James asked through a soft laugh. “C’mon, man.”

The radio turned itself on before Aleks could touch it – the small monitor suddenly flickering to life and revealing the logo against an artificial stone texture. They were obviously back on the tour track. Brett’s voice crackled through the speakers.

“That’ll be the start of the storm, guys. Your windscreen wipers should turn on automatically. And the park lights should be comin’ on any second now.”

Aleks fixed James with a ‘told you so’ look, just as the wipers squelched against the windscreen, neatly brushing away the building layer of water upon it.

The screen flickered once again, just as what seems to be floodlights surrounding the road turn. He’s sure both of them startled. Once the glare from the sudden light had stopped creating spots in his vision, James craned his head forward to peer at the lights above. Indeed, they’re not that different from floodlights – large, and placed on posts maybe eight feet above them. They’re also not as intense – now just a hard glow, enough to illuminate the road ahead and the closest ten-or-so feet of the land around them.

Aleks was looking too. He sniffed and sat back after a short moment, though. “Pretty weak lighting, huh?”

James shrugged, also sitting back. “Maybe it, like, scares the animals. I’d guess, anyway.”

“To the right,” droned the automated voice from the radio, “you will see a herd of the first dinosaurs on our tour, called Dilophosaurus.”

James’ head perked up. “Oh, shit.” But the enclosure was on the _right_ , outside _Aleks’_ window. He leant forward, hands braced on the divider between the two seats and peered past him, trying to focus on the darkened foliage past the fencing and not Aleks’ face, slightly blurred in his peripheral, staring at him. After a moment, he shifted uncomfortably and seemed to try to lean back as humanely possible, head turned to look out of the window.

“So, what’s-“ Aleks started, but James shushed him immediately, because the voice was speaking again, over the cheesiest ‘scary’ music James thinks he’s ever had the misfortune of hearing.

“One of the earliest carnivores,” Aleks stiffens a little at that, “we now know Dilophosaurus is actually poisonous, spitting venom at its prey, causing blindness and eventually paralysis, allowing the carnivore to eat at its leisure. This makes Dilophosaurus a beautiful, but deadly addition to Jurassic Park.”

James stared harder. Nothing. “Do you see anything?” He murmured.

Aleks shook his head. “Nothin’.”

“Damn,” James said, mainly to himself, as the car rolled on and away from the enclosure.

Aleks sighed, absent-mindedly shaking his left leg. “Startin’ to think maybe this is a hoax?”

“What?” James asked, a short laugh erupting from him. “No, dude. It’s just late. They might be, I don’t know, sleeping.”

“ _Sleeping_ ,” Aleks repeated, only a little bit condescending. “Aren’t lizards nocturnal?”

James made an ‘eh’ noise and shrugged in response.

The rain thundered down from above, leaving the front view of the car a warped mess with the sleek layer of rain over the glass, even as the wipers rapidly tried to combat it.

The radio crackled, and he expected to hear Brett and Lindsey. Instead came an unfamiliar voice.

“Hey guys,” the voice said, “This is, uh, Joe from the control room. Just lettin’ you know that your headlights aren’t working because of some bug in the tour program – nothin’ to worry about. There’s only three of us up here, so just give us time as we try to debug it. And, uh, if the car stutters a little, that’s fine. Just stay inside the vehicle. Okay. Have a good time.”

The radio made a squeak before settling back to the same white noise it had been emmiting before the transmission.

“Wow,” Aleks monotoned. “I feel _really_ safe right now.”

James, to his own disdain, _giggled_ at that. Aleks glanced at him, obviously a little pleased. James pretended not to notice. Instead, he focused on the road ahead – only illuminated in passing by the floodlights that flew by on their route. Eventually, though, the car slowed down into a much less lit area. They were on a sort of curved ridge. On the right was an expansive plain separated from the road by a large electrical fence, maybe twenty feet tall. On the left was just show foliage, with what could be a hut or a utility closet hidden among the bushes. The car slowed to a stop.

They both seemed to squint out of the window, looking for _something_. There was a sign on the fence – _Danger_ , it read, _10,000 volts_.

The voice on the radio started up again, a monotonous drone that vaguely reminded James of his high school History teacher. “The mighty tyrannosaurus arose late in the dinosaur history. Dinosaurs ruled the earth for hundred and fifty million years, but it wasn’t until the last-“

The radio monitor went black, cutting the voice off short. Aleks raised his hands in aghast.

“What’d I touch?” He asked, leaning forwards to peer out of his window.

James responded with a shrug, before remembering what exactly they were looking at. With an ‘oh’ noise, he moved out of his seat and lumbered over the seat division into the backseat, sitting behind Aleks and practically pressing his face up against the glass. He _had_ to see this. The headlights, in his peripheral, flickered on and off again. Aleks made a ‘woah’ noise.

“Where is it?” James asked through gritted teeth, using his hand to sweep away the fog that had been building up on the glass from his breath.

Aleks didn’t answer the question, just pressed at a few buttons on the radio absentmindedly.

James kept looking. Five minutes passed. They hadn’t  moved. He didn’t see any tyrannosaurus. What he did see, however, upon sitting back and staring straight ahead, was Brett, clad in a yellow raincoat, getting out of his vehicle and jogging towards theirs. Aleks opened the door, leaning his body away from the rain and almost colliding with James, who was leaning forward in between the two front seats. Brett reached their car and opened the door further, leaning inside with a pant.

“Hey guys,” he said, practically yelling over the rain. “Havin’ some technical difficulties, uh – just thought I’d let you know. Just stay in the car, we should be back on the road soon enough,” he looks away towards the other car. “Either of you wanna get into the other car?”

James looked to Aleks, who, although he seemed a little wary of ‘technical difficulties’, shook his head.

“No, man, I’m good.”

Brett nodded. “James?”

He considered it. “I’ll stay too, I think.”

Brett gave them a single nod. “Okay. Radios down, so we’ll keep you updated via the radio in the trunk, you can get it from the backseat. Channel seven. See you guys later.” He slammed the door, and James was already backing up into the backseat and leaning over to peer into the trunk.

There was a thin blanket covering the contents, which he swept away. The contents in question were four black boxes. He clicked the first one open, and found four flares resting in black foam. The second box contained a pair of goggles, tacky and heavy, and a flashlight. Also tacky and heavy. He didn’t look further into that. The third was where he hit the jackpot – two walkie-talkies. He placed them both on the seat by his knees. Out of curiosity alone, he opened the fourth – a pile of neatly packaged raincoats atop a small first aid box. He closed it and picked up the radios to clamber back into the front seat.

He dropped down in the seat with a grunt, passing one of the radios to Aleks, who took it with a little hesitation but stared at it in his hand like it was venomous and ready to spit at him at any moment. He seemed to snap back to reality soon after and shifted his head to slouch back against the seat, radio balanced on his thigh.

James tuned his radio to the channel, not bothering to test it just yet. Instead, he looked back to the fencing.

“You think those technical difficulties – or whatever – are dangerous?”

Aleks gave a shrug. “Probably, man.”

James pulled his mouth into a grimace, looking in the mirror to the car behind them.

“You think Alec is okay?” Aleks asked, seeming to think the exact same as him.

James hoped so. Alec seemed a little skittish in the park. Poor kid.

“Oh,” James articulated, hands hovering above his lap. “I don’t know. He’s with Brett and Lindsey, you know. He’s probably okay.”

“I think,” Aleks begins, but he never gets to finish that thought, because then a shrill alarm is interrupting them. They simultaneously wince at the volume, which seems to lower, at least enough so that James can be heard over it.

“What the fuck is that?” He yelled, and Aleks grimaced in reply, seeming to hesitate before opening his door again and planting a foot against the frame of the door. The rain was somehow heavier than before and it thundered against Aleks’ form as he straightened up and twisted around. James could only see his torso as his arm raised, presumably waving to the other car.

The walkie-talkie in James’ hand crackled, but Aleks didn’t hear it.

“Floo-“ it barked, “Alarm, don’t- stay-“ it silenced itself.

James stared at it for a second, eyes bugged and hands fluttering, unsure of what to do. The alarm eventually halted, leaving and unpleasant ringing in James’ ears he knew would linger for a while. Eventually, he held down the button and spoke.

“What? I can’t – we can’t hear you,”

Aleks fell back down in the seat, hair soaking wet and plastered to his forehead, and sweater damp against his frame. “Nothing,” he announces, exhaling sharply as he slammed the door closed. “I, uh, don’t think they can see us through the rain.”

James didn’t reply, too preoccupied with holding the radio up to his ear and listening intently. For anything, he supposed.

“Brett,” he said, probably louder than needed. “Voice came through. Something about an alarm.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking flood alarm, maybe.”

The radio crackles again. They both tensed, Aleks leaning closer to hear. This voice was much clearer.

“Car two,” James supposed that was them. “Do not leave the vehicle. Flooding from the rain has become worst. We’re sending two game wardens out for you. I repeat, do not leave the vehicle. Over and out.”

The radio silenced itself, and James stared at it, bewildered.

“Well,” Aleks mused, leaning back. “This fucking sucks.”

“Yeah,” James replied bluntly, placing the radio in one of the two cupholders between their seats. “But, I mean, at least we’re not stranded. Right?”

“Right.”

They sit quietly for a moment, staring into the darkness ahead. James found that his vision began to improve after a while, enough that he could make out the outline of the car behind them a little clearer in the side mirrors. Enough that he could clearly see the passenger side door open and a figure hop out.

He straightened up, enough that Aleks opened his eyes – he seemed to be ready to nap – and watched him. James leant closer to the window, watched the figure jog towards the fence. Then the driver door opened and another figure jumped out, following the other. They were both out of sight in the mirror within seconds. 

“What’s happening?” Aleks mumbled, opening his door _again_ (James was seriously worried he would have to pay for interior damage to the car) and leaning out. James watched over his soldier, adjusting his hat to balance on the back of his head and to not obscure his vision further. He could barely see the two figures, but he was almost certain one of them was Brett – his broad frame juxtaposed against a smaller one. Probably Lindsey.

“There  are flashlights in the back. I’ll – “ James jabbed a thumb behind them before scrambling over the seat divider and practically diving into the trunk, sweeping aside boxes until reaching the third book. He shoved aside the goggles and picked up the flashlight. It was definitely heavy and looked more like a camera, but he grabbed it by the handle and heaved it with him back into the front seat, thumping it into his lap before he could find the switch. The light was bright, nearly blinding, and Aleks vocally cringed as James accidentally directed it towards his face. He rushed a sorry before Aleks took it from him, shining it towards the figures. It cast them in a sterile white spotlight, but they showed no reaction to it whatsoever, seemingly busy arguing at a volume loud enough that James and Aleks could hear little glimpses of syllables.

The smaller figure – it was definitely Lindsey, confirmed by the flashes of long brown hair in the light - ducked down, seemingly to retrieve something, and then, without warning, the object was being flung, in a silhouetted blur, against the fence. There was a moment of stagnant movement, before Brett was being shoved away and Lindsey was sprinting towards the car. Aleks lowered the flashlight into his lap, bracing his hands against the doorframe.

The flashlight’s beam captured Lindsey as she sprinted towards them, face contorted into what James could only describe as horror. Her hair bounced on her shoulders, boots thumping against the ground. Aleks shoved the flashlight towards James, who barely caught it as it as the beam threw upwards, landing upon the electric bars of the fence, higher, and higher, glistening on the surfaces of wet leaves, and landing on the cold stare of a green eye, high above them.

James froze, every muscle in his body seizing simultaneously for a second as he stared  back at it, hands trembling and shaking the beam across the surface of the eye. The pupil dilated briefly, and blinked. He fumbled for words. But Lindsey was already talking.

“You have to,” she yelled over the storm, but the deafening twang of _something_ interrupted her. They all turned to the source of the noise – behind her. Then another _twang_ sounded. Then another. It was far too late when they realised that it was the fence. Lindsey made a shrieking noise, stumbling for a second as if she didn’t know what direction to turn to. “Get the fuck out of here!” She finally yelled, turning on her heel and running back to the other car.

James kept his eyes on the fence, but in his peripheral, he was sure he saw Brett waving her into the car. There was another _twang_ , and he and Aleks seemed to simultaneously lean forwards. The flashlight was thrown in the direction when James jostled in his position to lean forwards, and it was clear what it was.

The tyrannosaurus rex was, one-by-one, breaking through the fence with its hulking body.

It was terrifying. James had studied tyrannosaurus fossils – countless. His favourite was one called Maisie, found in New Mexico a few years prior. But seeing one like _this_ , with dark skin folded and bunched over powerful limbs and tightened at its mouth, which held rows of gleaming teeth, and with small, lizard-like eyes that seemed to follow everything at once, was something else entirely.

He felt sick to his stomach, but frozen in his seat. Aleks, however, had instinctively leant back, hand braced against the dashboard and forming a sort of seatbelt over James. He turned his head to the side, voice hushed.

“That’s the-“ He began, voice rising in a slight question.

“T-Rex,” James confirmed, voice trembling ever so slightly.

“And it’s a – it’s a meat-eater?”

“Yeah.”

Aleks swallowed audibly and, slowly, extended his foot to hook around the door handle and to, presumably, swing it closed. He didn’t get a chance, though, because then there were exactly four more _twang_ s and then the awful shake of a _thump_. The tyrannosaurus had one foot up on the concrete block that once held the fence. It seemed to pause before a loud grumble emerged from it. The beam of the flashlight ran down it’s torso and towards it’s feet as it took another step up, this time over the platform.

The radio started from the cupholder. “-light off!-“ Cried a staticky Lindsey. “The light-“

Aleks turned his head towards him again as James began to fumble with the thing, suddenly much more heavy in his shaky hands. He suddenly couldn’t remember where the switch was. Aleks widened his eyes.

“James,” he gritted out. “Turn the light off,”

“I can’t, I-“

The tyrannosaurus tilted its head back, and roared.

It was deafening. Deep enough to make them tremble, loud enough to shake the entire car. James dropped the flashlight as his arms instinctively shot out to grab Aleks’ arm in terror. The flashlight fell to the floor by his feet, light down. At least that problem was solved. Aleks cried out, uncharacteristic of him, as he ducked his head and dropped his leg from the still-open door. When the roar stopped, James didn’t let go.

Now shrouded in darkness, they could only make out the vague outline of the thing as it began to approach the track.

Aleks placed his shoe back underneath the door handle. James started to say _stop_ , or something, because that would be loud. They couldn’t afford being loud at this moment. But Aleks bent his knee and the door slammed shut.

The tyrannosaurus’ head snapped to them, and there was a terrible second of . It ducked down and began to approach, rounding the two cars. As it crossed it front of them, James caught a glimpse of great muscle as it heaved its legs across the now-muddy ground, splashing it up and undoubtedly onto the hood of the car. It paused by James’ side, lowered its enormous head, and the world seemed to freeze.

Alek’s hand rose, slowly, to grip James’ arm. They were clinging onto each other like their life depended on it. Maybe it did. His breathing quickened, eyes tracking the thing as it lowered itself to their level and peered inside the vehicle. Aleks’ fingers dug into his flesh. His heart felt like it was in his throat. The rain was muted in his ears. The thing’s eyes dilated and expanded, watching them.

Aleks seemed to find a voice through his constrained throat and shaky breaths. “I don’t think,” he began, not moving his gaze. “I don’t think it can see us.”

“Vision is based on movement.” James swallowed. “Don’t move.”

He felt Aleks nod, slowly. So much for that.

And to make things worse, the tyrannosaurus chose the best moment to let out a roar again. This time, James is sure it knows they’re in there. The roar is loud enough that it shakes the vehicle, and, impulsively, they both throw their hands up to cup over their own ears. The noise is muffled and James is relieved for a second but, when the roar stops, the tyrannosaurus peers back into the car and a low growl rumbles from it before it’s throwing it’s head back, and nudging it against the door.

The car rocks and they’re both thrown – James, against Aleks, and Aleks, against his door. They’re pressed up against each other and falling for one terrifying moment before the car rocks back and onto the track. Aleks makes a grunting noise and James’ quick glance to him proves him clutching his right shoulder and breathing sharply through gritted teeth. He doesn’t have time to apologise though, because he’s already scrambling for an escape. The tyrannosaurus was still right outside and looked as though it may try again, and James wanted to ask _why_ it hadn’t bitten down and crushed the car yet, but it was already poising it’s body back, ready to slam into the vehicle again.

The headlights flickered on again, and the car began to move. So did the other car, behind them, but it rolled backwards on the track. Despite the dinosaur pressed up against the car, both James and Aleks twisted around to watch as the cars parted in either directions. The radio made a beeping noise before continuing its narration, to which James and Aleks turned around to. The tyrannosaurus had halted in surprise, it seemed, at the sudden movement, but had begun to tread alongside them, body uncomfortably close to the side of the vehicle.

“-seventeen million that the tyrannosaurus ruled. Characterised by their huge form – 15 feet tall and 40 feet long, with a mass of eight tons – these carnivores are now known to be the greatest predator that ever lived.”

 _No shit_ , James thought as the T-Rex swung it’s body back, about to-

“Oh shit,” Aleks vocalised.

It crashed it’s weight against the side of the car again, rocking it on it’s hinges. This time James was almost convinced they would topple over – but they didn’t. There was another terrifying moment, filled with yells and cries where they were both shoved to one side of the vehicle, when the boxes in the trunk collided with each other and spilled over into the backseat.

“To your left is Jurassic Park’s very own T-Rex. Feeding times are at nine-thirty, twelve-twenty, and six-thirty. Tickets can be purchased to watch feeding times at the Visitor Centre, or ask any of our helpful guides around the park!” Chimed the cheerful voice from the radio as the car returned to its place on the tracks, throwing the two men back into their seats. James’ head made contact with the window briefly, his temple hitting the glass with a heavy _clunk_. It wasn’t there for long, though, because the momentum of the move was sending him back and planting him against the back of the chair again. He groaned and opened his eyes gradually, feeling the ground vibrate underneath the tyrannosaurus’ footsteps.

He was greeted with the tyrannosaurus’ gleaming teeth as it stepped alongside their car. Playing with them.

That was enough to throw James into action.

“Move,” he gritted out, giving Aleks just enough time to shift away before he was climbing over the  seat divider and into the backseat. “We have to,” he inhaled shakily. “We have to get out. Try the door.”

Aleks did, and James physically winced at the tell-tale click of a lock door. Aleks craned his head around. “Where the fuck are we gonna go?”

James positioned himself on his back on the seat and placed his boot soles against the window, knees bent and tense. He exhaled through his nose.

“I don’t know. Just…” he thought for a second. They needed to distract the thing. The flare. “There’s a fucking flare in the trunk, get back here.”

Aleks complied, climbing over the divider and kneeling on the seat next to James, practically throwing himself into the trunk. James listened to the boxes rifle around, listened to the footsteps right alongside them, threw his knees up to his chest, and _kicked_.

He opened his eyes. The window was still whole. So, he turned his face away again, and counted the steps that thudded through his chest. He kicked again once he counted eight. Another look. Nothing. Aleks straightened up in his peripheral, red stick in his hand. He uncapped it.

“How do you light these things?” He asked, practically yelling over the thudding footsteps.

James kicked at the window again. “The cap,” the window had shuddered a little then. “Use the cap.”

Aleks stared at him before James begrudgingly made the motion with his hands. Then he got it.

The red light erupted in James’ vision, and there was a sinking of relief in his chest.

“Wait, wait,” Aleks started, and that’s when James realised their mistake. “What the fuck do I do with this?”

Goddamnit.

“Hang on,” James tried, bracing his legs again.

That’s when the ceiling gave in.

It took a second for James to entirely register what exactly had happened. But natural impulse took over, he guessed, because his body somehow swivelled itself round and raised its arms to join his legs so that the glass ceiling didn’t entirely crush him. A glance to his side showed Aleks doing the same, screaming at something above him. The flare rolled around on the floor beneath them, and he hoped it didn’t start a fire. That was the last thing they needed. James looked back to stare at Aleks, numb mind circulating the same thought – _what is that?_ Then he finally looked up. He wished he hadn’t.

The T-Rex had slammed its head down on the roof, and it had caved in. But the car was still moving, and their predator seemed a little dazed at the impact, falling behind ever so slightly. So Aleks and James had been left there, carrying the plastic window and yelling up at the bobbing head of the tyrannosaurus as it grunted above them.

Miraculously, the car had not fallen off track or stopped with the impact. But the flare was still rolling around beneath them and the tyrannosaurus was above them.

Aleks reacted first, turning his head to stare at James with wide eyes.

“We’re gonna,” he paused to breathe, arms shaking. “Push. We have to push. Okay.”

James nodded to a question that wasn’t asked.

“Okay,” Aleks confirmed, softening his elbows slightly. James did the same, flinching ever so slightly at the glob of saliva that splatted on the roof above him. “On three.”

He counted down, but his words were muted in James’ ears. He could only hear the rolling of the car on the tracks, the thudding of the tyrannosaurus’ feet, the clattering of the screen above them. So he watched Aleks instead, focusing on how his mouth moved around the numbers, until he shouted a silent ‘three!’.

They both pushed.

The roof seemed as if it barely missed the tyrannosaurus’ face and flew off to the side, landing in the road that flew behind them as the car continued to move. So the roof was gone.

James, as another glob of spit from the tyrannosaurus landed, this time on his chest, realised what a bad idea this was.

But the T-Rex was still staring ahead, seemingly trying to catch up, and didn’t seem to have noticed. He didn’t feel his hand shoot out and grab Aleks, but it did, and soon they were both sitting up and peering out of the roof, heads ducked deliberately. A quick glance was exchanged, no words needed, before James had his foot up on the door handle and was heaving himself up and over the car, landing the now wet soil below.

He hit the ground heavily and it took the breath out of him. He laid there, almost grunting in pain as his chest throbbed with the impact, but held back when remembering their situation. He heard the car creak, and then a thud as Aleks’ body hit the soft ground. The car rolled to a stop. James huffed, and turned his head ever so slowly, still lying on his stomach, to squint his fuzzy gaze towards Aleks, who was similarly sprawled out. He was almost relieved to see him alive, until he saw the dazzling flare in one fist.

He wanted to scream – ‘what the fuck?’ or ‘why the fuck’ or whatever the fuck – but all he could do was slowly move his hand to press his pointer finger against his lips, the universal motion for ‘shut the fuck up’. He had to get that flare before Aleks did something stupid.

Slowly, he began to writhe in the mud towards Aleks, shifting on the one or two ribs he was sure he had broken. The mud was soaking through his clothes, squelching beneath him. Aleks flexed the hand holding the flare as it sizzled in the rain, still lit despite the weather conditions.

Up ahead, the car rolled to a stop.

James stopped in his movement, feeling the cold mud coat his front further as the rain thundered down on his back, hard enough to hurt. The thudding of the tyrannosaurus’ footsteps stopped, and a soft grunt echoed through the air.

“Here, if you look to your left, you can see the valley below, one of Jurassic Park’s most beautiful locations. Join us there for the Jurassic Park River Ride, admission free with your safari ticket.” Said the radio’s voice, before the car began to move again. James closed his eyes, praying that the tyrannosaur followed. The thudding footsteps didn’t continue. Shit.

He, very slowly, inclined his head, trying not to look too hard at Aleks, whose eyes were wide and had an awful tremble running throughout his body. The tyrannosaurus was still, seemingly watching the vehicle go. It disappeared down the track, into some foliage. They were alone. Defenceless. No radio, no raincoats, no food. All with a T-Rex a few metres away. There was a thud. Another.

Then a squelch, eerily close to his head.

James turned his gaze back to Aleks.

He couldn’t be sure as to whether Aleks looked better or worse than him – but either way, he looked pretty bad. His front half was coated in thick mud, as well as one side of his face and his hair. The other half was soaking wet, from the rain. The shoulder of his arm holding the flare was rested at a clearly uncomfortable angle. The source of the squelching had been the flare itself being dug into the mud between them, the lit side upwards and the rest held in Aleks’ fist. James looked past the flare to Aleks again, who was fixing him with a stern stare.

“Throw it,” James mouthed, even though he doubted his voice would be audible over the rain and the incoming thudding.

Aleks frowned, clearly dubious.

James pointedly looked to his left, behind them, and that seemed to be all the convincing Aleks needed before he was lifting his arm out of the mud with a heave and a soft grunt at his compromised shoulder, stretching out his arm, and preparing to throw, before…

A snout, maybe six feet above Aleks’ frame, came into James’ vision, and the huff of air was audible and visible in the cold air. Aleks obviously felt it, the hot air against the back of his neck, because he froze, mouth falling slack and eyes widening again. James stared back at him, trying to communicate ‘don’t move’ as best he could. But Aleks’ mouth was opening and closing like a fish, and James winced himself as the tyrannosaurus’ head neared further, nose grazing Aleks’ back. He half-expected it to clamp down on Aleks and kill him right there and then. But it didn’t.

It nosed at him, seeming almost curious, but held off otherwise. James held his breath.

Aleks’ body tensed and, in a quick movement, fast enough that James didn’t even register that it happened, threw the flare.

The red light dazzled as it twirled through  the air, out of James peripheral but with a clear destination when the tyrannosaur startled, letting out a high grunt and thudding a few steps back. James didn’t waste any time.

He sprung up, crying out in effort as his sopping wet clothes weighed him down. Mud dripped down from his frame as he stumbled forwards, boots burying themselves in the sludge as he approached Aleks quickly, who was already getting up. He looked about them, but there was only one place he could think to go that was even vaguely safe.

Aleks paused, but James grabbed his arm and lugged him towards the dip to the valley.

The valley itself was framed by a concrete step, about four feet up and two feet across, spanning the rest of the road that wasn’t the tyrannosaur paddock itself. They reached the step fast enough, dragging themselves in a sprint across the space. They made it maybe halfway before the thudding began again, fast enough to be alarming but slow enough to not pose the threat of being eaten before they even had a chance. That was what sent James heaving himself up and onto the step, straightening up and squinting down.

Aleks closely joined him with a grunt, body flattening on the step before he rose to his knees, and then into a hunched stand, hands braced on his knees as he stared down.

“That’s,” he yelled, voice hoarse. “That’s a two-hundred foot drop.”

James nodded, gritting his teeth before whirling around. The tyrannosaur was fast approaching, jaws open. That spurred him enough to peer down closer, and to spot the utility ladder leading straight down. That was their chance – he pointed at it, mouth open but not able to think of anything to say. Aleks seemed to see it at the exact same time and began to run towards it, closely followed by James. He could see the T-Rex again, barely in his peripheral, with its head ducked and mouth still open, teeth gleaming at them.

Aleks sat down on the ledge above the start of the ladder and twisted his body around, planting his sneakers on one bar and his hands on the top one. He didn’t move for a second, and James felt panic rise in his chest again.

“Move!” He yelled, for lack of better communication.

“I can’t,” Aleks replied, raising his head to squint up at him, face dripping with rainwater. “It’s slippery! I’ll fall!”

James gaped at him. “You’re afraid of fucking heights? You?!” He screamed.

“I-“

The tyrannosaur roared, a predatory thunder that quaked the world again and shook James to his core. Aleks got that look again, like he was seeing a ghost, and that seemed to compel him to start to move quickly, limbs flurrying. James quickly knelt down and turned to place himself on the ladder. He turned, and became face to face with the tyrannosaurus. It roared again, and there was a distinct pop in his left ear as spit splattered onto his upper body. James closed his eyes, opened them, and ducked down to begin descending the ladder just as the tyrannosaurs’ jaws snapped above them.

They kept moving, until James’ legs were numb with the cold and the constant movement. He felt heavy, body weighed down with mud and water. Aleks didn’t sound much better, grunting every so often. It didn’t take them long to reach the bottom, maybe four minutes, but it felt longer. Aleks, upon arriving at the ground, leant back and against the wall, breath hitching as he tried to relax. James arrived soon after and hunched down on the floor, trying to regain his breath. The floor down there wasn’t nearly as wet, more just soft soil, like marshland, he supposed.

Aleks paused.

“You hurt?” He asked softly, and James nodded.

“My ear… it’s not working. You?”

Aleks shrugged. “It’s, uh, hard to say.” He turned his head, seemingly listening for something. James listened too. It was rushing water. Aleks began to stalk towards the source of the noise, and James sighed before begrudgingly following him. It was a short distance before they found it.

A pipe, five feet in diameter, was rushing out clear water into the start of a river bank. Aleks rushed towards it, immediately burying his face in it like an animal and immediately withdrawing his head, eyes squeezed shut and mouth opened as he struggled to breathe. James watched him, mildly amused, before leaning forwards to scoop water onto his features. Aleks plunged his head back into the freezing water until the watery mud was gone from his face, and the damage could be seen a little more clearly.

“You have a cut,” James pointed out. It was small, but deep, running across his right cheekbone.

Aleks raised a hand to feel it, scrunching his face up a little at the probable sting. “Yeah. I think I got it on the, uh, what is it? The frame of the door, or whatever,” He held his sweatshirt out and under the rushing water. “Your ear is bleeding.”

James nodded, numbly, only just now feeling the warm liquid seeping down his neck amidst the fresh water and old mud. “Somethin’ popped in there, man.”

Aleks nodded, and James took the chance to look at their surroundings. It was a thick jungle, with a thin layer of mist having settled over the ground, presumably with the downfall. He couldn’t hear anything apart from the distant squawking of birds, and perhaps that was a good thing. He couldn’t exactly be sure. Aleks moved to stand beside him, soaking but much more clean and seeming much better.

“Uh, thanks for saving me, I guess.” Aleks said, hands on his hips as they stared off in the same direction.

Had he? James couldn’t quite decipher the blur that had taken place only ten minutes prior. But nonetheless, he nodded.

“Yeah. No problem, man. Sorry about, like, yelling at you, or whatever,” he sniffed, and squinted into the distance. “I think we should go find something. The car, it said something, uh-“

“The, uh, river ride, or whatever, right?” Aleks asked, to James’ curt nod. “Think they got boats?”

“Maybe,” James replied, smoothing his hair back and letting his arms fall to clench his fists at his side. “We should follow the river – and, uh, try not to get eaten, you know.”

He started walking, boots slushing at the bank. Aleks stood still for a second, and James heard an exhale from behind him, following by a thin,

“God, I hate being right all the time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew!! second chapter done!!   
> i know this is awfully similar to the source material but it'll deviate from here on out!! its just a super iconic scene!!  
> find me on tumblr at powellio!


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